Stuff YOU Should Know
Barbados Elects First President The Caribbean island of Barbados was a British colony until fifty-five years ago, when the country first announced its independence. But it remained in the British commonwealth and Queen Elizabeth remained the ceremonial head of state. In 2020, Barbados declared its plans to become a republic. This meant replacing Queen Elizabeth […]
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Biden Calls Killing of Armenians Genocide Over one hundred years ago, about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Now, for the first time, an American president has officially recognized this tragedy as a genocide. President Biden made a statement on April 24, 2021, on the 106th anniversary […]
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Biden Appoints First Female Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth has had a long career in military and foreign policy. She served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President Obama–the third highest civilian position in the Department of Defense. She has also been the Special Assistant to the President and the Senior Director […]
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Alabama Bill Helps People with Disabilities Needing Transplants Imagine this: you are in desperate need of a kidney transplant. But because of a disability, you can’t be put on the waiting list to receive a new kidney. That is currently the law in Alabama. However, last Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives voted unanimously in […]
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#StopAsianHate The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone in the United States. But each group has had its own experiences. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have faced the job losses and economic hardships that many Americans have felt, and also were the target in a rise in anti-Asian racism. Former president Trump’s insistence on calling […]
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Israel’s Mystery Oil Spill Israel is undergoing a massive cleanup effort after an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea polluted the country’s beaches and coasts with tar. This oil spill is Israel’s biggest ecological disaster in history. But the strange part is that no one quite knows how the tar got there. Israeli authorities suspect […]
Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars
After travelling 470 million kilometers and spending nearly seven months in space, NASA’s Perseverance rover finally landed on Mars on February 18. This is the first NASA mission sent specifically to search for signs of past microbial life on the “Red Planet” since the 1970s. Here, btw takes a closer look at the specifics of […]
SpaceX Crew Returns Home
On Sunday, August 2, 2020, the crew of SpaceX returned safely from their trip to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronauts Robert Behnken (50 years old) and Douglas Hurley (53 years old) spent 64 days in space before landing safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida. Here, btw takes a closer look at this exciting […]
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Reconsidering Facial Recognition Technology Imagine that you are accused by law enforcement of a crime you didn’t commit. Imagine that the reason for your arrest is that you were misidentified by flawed facial recognition technology. Following the protests surrounding George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Democrats in Congress have been considering widespread police reform. One of […]
Katherine Johnson Dies at 101
Did you see the movie Hidden Figures? It was based on a book about three African American women who were instrumental behind the scenes at NASA in the 1960s. Sadly, one of the women featured in the book and movie, Katherine Johnson, passed away last week. She was 101 years old. Here, btw takes a […]